


A Beautiful Start

by elliebird



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21685036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliebird/pseuds/elliebird
Summary: An AU, based on the idea that Michael and Alex were IN LOVE in high school and TOGETHER together.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 16
Kudos: 127
Collections: 12 Days Of Malex 2019





	A Beautiful Start

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [winged-fool](https://winged-fool.tumblr.com/) and the prompt "secret marriage." I didn't adhere to the prompt, and I hope you enjoy this, I loved writing it.

Roswell’s Main Street is deserted when the bus pulls into the depot a little after six. It’s still dark, despite the pale light beginning to creep above the horizon. Alex hasn’t had any real sleep in nearly twenty-four hours. He needs a shower and could stand to brush his teeth. He’s been traveling for nearly twelve hours. 

He grabs his duffle from the rack overhead, thanks the weathered driver and descends the bus. He doesn’t use his cell phone much these days but he retrieves it from a side pocket and scrolls for the number he programmed before he left. 

He takes in the quiet downtown as he listens to the phone ring. The light’s been fixed above Across the Crash Down, but other than that, nothing’s changed since he’s been away. Across the street, parked in front of the museum, is a painfully familiar Chevy pickup. 

Alex flips his phone shut. 

He and Guerin haven’t spoken in two weeks. Alex had waited an hour for his chance to use the phone. They’d gotten ten rushed minutes, surrounded by people who could get him discharged if he slipped up and said the wrong thing. It hadn’t been much of a conversation. 

Alex writes letters daily, mostly bits of song lyrics and the weird shit airmen do when they’re bored out of their minds. Michael’s written back a handful of times, including one blank, beer-soaked postcard from Santa Fe. 

He’s halfway across the street when the door to the Chevy opens and Michael steps out. It’s been seven months since they’ve seen each other, since Michael paid cash for a motel three miles from base and Alex almost said to hell with the Air Force. 

Michael’s found himself a pair of cowboy boots and a flannel that appears to be missing some buttons. It’s a look, miles from the hoodies and vests he wore in high school but then again, Alex has ditched the collars and black nail polish for standard issue and polished boots. 

“I was going to get a cab,” Alex says, doing his best to tamp down on the emotion making his throat tight. 

“I had nothing better to do.” Guerin lifts a shoulder. The corner of his mouth ticks up. 

There’s a beat of stunned nothingness and then Alex drops his duffle. 

This wasn’t the plan. The plan involved a taxi taking Alex out to Michael’s, where Alex could see him for the first time in too many months and not worry about being caught breathless and head over feet for his boyfriend. 

Michael cups the back of Alex’s neck and holds onto him like he’s not planning on letting go. 

“I like this plan better,” Alex says breathlessly into the hot skin at Michael’s throat. 

Alex has seen photos of the Airstream Michael bought a few months after Alex left for the first time. He’s made an agreement with a landowner out Route 21. He drives and Alex dozes, head against the window, hazy memories drifiting in and out of the countless times they rode out this way together, to smoke, make out, fuck. 

Michael pulls off the main road and drives for close to half a mile, over desert road and sun-scorched earth that Alex knows by memory. 

Alex steps out of the truck and finds himself backed against the hood, six feet of Guerin pinning him in place. 

Alex hasn’t been with anyone but Michael since their first kiss at the beginning of senior year. If the true isn’t the same for Michael, he doesn’t need to know. 

They talked about it a handful of times until the talking made things worse. Alex isn’t looking for a meaningless promise. He wants Michael forever. 

Michael looks at him for a long, silent minute. Alex doesn’t know what he’s looking for but after a beat he says, emotion making his voice rough, “I missed you.” 

Alex tugs him close, an arm slung around his shoulders. He kisses him in the middle of the desert, with the sun coming up, the cool air reminding him of all the mornings he woke up in this same spot in the bed of Michael’s truck. 

“Come on,” Michael says and tugs Alex inside. 

The inside of the trailer is sparse, save for some of the remnants of the ship Michael spends his free time poring over. Alex knew he and Michael were forever the day Micahel showed him the abandoned shed where he’d been storing pieces of the ship he’d salvaged. 

Alex’s hope is that the Air Force will provide them some answers, as long as Alex can tow the line and handle the distance. Some months are harder than others. 

“Are you hungry?” Michael asks, lips curved in a cocky smirk that means he knows the answer. 

Alex ignores the question and backs Michael towards the bed. 

They make up for lost time, twice, and when they come up for air, the trailer is full of daylight. 

Alex has been in the Air Force for two and a half years. Michael decided Albuquerque wasn’t for him and has cobbled together bits and pieces of a life out here, taking odd jobs and spending his free time learning as much as he can about engineering, though Alex teases him about the _alien_ part of the knowledge he’s missing. 

Alex gets up to use the toilet. When he returns, Michael’s on his back, one arm folded beneath his head. The sheets are tangled low on his hips. His body’s changed since the days they used to find any second they could to make out in custodial closets and the back of Alex’s Corolla. He’s broader in the shoulders, leaner in his thighs. There are shadows in his eyes that weren’t there when they first met, parts of Michael’s life he’s shared that might have made Alex run, if not for how hopelessly in love he is. 

“You’re staring,” Michael says. He’s watching Alex, a stillness in him that used to frighten him. He knows better, now. 

“Marry me,” Alex answers. 

It’s not the first time he’s asked. 

Michael blinks, but otherwise, there’s no response, no sign that he’s heard Alex. Maybe he should have waited until he’d put on his clothes. But it’s out now, and he’s standing in his underwear, waiting for Michael to say something. 

The first time had been in the back of Michael’s truck. They were graduating in two days. A summer loomed ahead of them, and beyond it, Alex’s departure. He asked again, three days before leaving for basic, knowing Michael’s answer before he asked. 

He sits at the edge of the bed. “Marry me,” he says again. 

“I heard you,” Michael says. “I’m ignoring you.” 

“I’m serious.” Alex reaches for Michael’s hand and fits their fingers together. 

“I know. Which is why I’m pretending you didn’t suggest an air force officer who could _lose his job_ marry his marginally employed high school boyfriend.” 

“I’m not going to change my mind,” Alex says. He climbs into the bed and crowds Michael against the wall. 

Michael’s mouth twitches. “I know,” he says again. His eyes go soft. “I’m familiar with you.” 

Alex throws a thigh over Michael’s hip, pinning him to the mattress. He pushes his fingers into his hair, his thumb brushing the hollow at the nape of his neck. “You’re going to say yes, eventually,” Alex tells him, his lips against Michael’s. 

Michael huffs. Alex can tell he’s trying not to laugh. “You’re probably right.” He slides a palm down Alex’s back, slips his fingers beneath the waistband of his underwear. 

“I’m always right.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I'm on [Tumblr](https://elliebirdthings.tumblr.com/).


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